The human resources department was designed with a strong focus on managing employees at the workplace. But despite advancements in technology which effectively remove the communication barriers between HR and employees, the disconnect between the two groups could not have been bigger.
ADP released a report in 2014 from various studies, which examined the consequences of the perceived lack of disconnect between employees and HR. It found that while 79% of HR leaders reported that it was extremely likely to get HR related questions answered from employees, only 56% of employees actually agreed with them.
This disparity exists across the United States and has almost the same relationship on a global scale. HR personnel are of the opinion that employees are far more satisfied upon receiving an answer to the question than they actually are.
This glaring misunderstanding can easily manifest itself as a number of different problems within the organization, for instance, how can HR leaders conduct proper surveys and gauge employee behavior if they cannot trust their responses?
How do organizations know that the benefits which they’ve secured for their employees are actually advantageous to them, if they’re of the grandeur that employees are more satisfied than they actually are? It also shows that employees are not made aware of all their benefit options. This can be a serious problem because organizations use employee benefits as one of the primary tools the recruiting process.
Employee portal
More than half of all employees in the US prefer to send all their queries to an employee portal instead of asking a live human! For them, employee portals are far better means of gathering useful information and help with decision making than to consult their HR department and risk having conversation! Contrast this statistics with less than one third of HR personnel who actually agree with this sentiment.
What are their options?
HR managers claimed that employees can get their questions answered by the HR team, HR representatives, managers and supervisors. Most employees however claimed that they would rather use the internal company portal as a resource to get their questions answered.
This stark difference in perceptions between employees and their HR managers directly translates into a high turnover rate for the organization. For instance, among employees who felt that it was relatively easy to have their HR questions answered, less than 1 in 5 claimed they would search for a job elsewhere over the course of the next 12 months.
Among employees who felt that it was not as easy to get their questions answered by HR personnel, almost 2 in 5 reported that they would search for a job in the next 12 months.
HR staff is designed to help employees with all their questions and make their stay at the office an easier ordeal than it has to. If they’re unable to serve this core purpose, the result would be disgruntled and unmotivated employees who would rather look for a job elsewhere with more supportive and responsive HR staff.
